Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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Have You Hugged A Teacher Lately?

For a nation concerned with being competitive with the rest of the world we are doing all we can do to gut that competitiveness by gutting education. We refuse to tax those who could afford it, instead we want to gut, gut, and gut a little more in all pursuit of of some idealogical fantansy.

Having dated a school teacher for the last 3 years, I am not sure why anyone stays in the professional. I understand the burn out rate early in the career is high. I’m sure folks get into teaching for many reasons, and I know for many that reason is a need for a socially significant profession. We should reward folks for these occupation.

From what I hear teaching has turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. Plus teaching has become an exercise in teaching to standardized tests.

Below is a link to an excellent article and retro video about this issue.

Have You Hugged A Teacher Lately?

If you do a Google search on Teacher Burnout, I came up with close to 200,000 hits.

A couple of interesting quotes from the article:

“Nearly half of all teachers quit during their first five years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but the numbers alone don’t convey the full severity of the problem.”

“It is often the best qualified teachers who leave first because they have the easiest time finding employment in other fields.”

Yet there is a group of politicians (and citizens) trying to make them the scapegoat for our financial problems.  Shame on them.

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NRA – Arms Manufacturer Lobbying Arm

I looked and looked online trying to find the funding sources for the National Rifle Association (NRA).  I did not have a lot of luck.

Here is an article from Mother Jones that sheds some light on that murky subject.

Who Does the NRA Advocate For?

To answer their question…it is not the average gun owner, but the corporations that funnel money to them.

It is past time for sensible gun regulation in this country.

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No More Teddy Bears

No more candle light vigils.  No more piles of teddy bears.  No more stacks of flowers.  No more fences covered with ribbons.  No more platitudes or speeches of remembrance.  We react compassionately to tragic events after the fact.  They fade from memory and we fail to act to prevent the next one.

There were probably a multitude of factors that collided in the Tucson shooting that left 6 dead and many more wounded.

First, it is much, much too easy to get guns in this country.  I read recently that there are 85 guns for every 100 people in the US.  If they were evenly distributed that would be almost be a gun for every man, woman and child in the US.

Secondly, access to health care in this country is atrocious Continue reading “No More Teddy Bears”

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Wealth Inequality = Social Problems

Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times Equality, a True Soul Food

He is summarizing a British report on the societal effects of wealth inequality. Currently in America “the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.”  I do not understand why everyone, except the 1%, is not shocked and up in arms over this fact.  But that is me.

The basic premise of the study, backed up by tons of data is this.  With great wealth inequality you create a wide variety of personal and social stressors.  There are increases in crime, Continue reading “Wealth Inequality = Social Problems”

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A New God Given Document

A friend sent me the following link: Scalia: Women Don’t Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination

The gist of the article is this.  The 14th Amendment, specifically the Equal Protection clause,  requires the states to provide equal protection to all people within its jurisdiction.  Scalia is arguing that the Constitution and this amendment does not prohibit the passage of laws discriminating based on gender or sexual orientation.  Continue reading “A New God Given Document”

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I Want to Buy American

I was in Lowe’s the other day.   The fact that it was Lowe’s is only incidental.  It could have been any of the many big box store chains that dot Generica.

They provided to me a pretty clear snapshot of the some issues that are troubling me about American business.  It all seems to boil down to corporations being willing to sell out this country because they are more concerned about the quarterly profit statement and executive pay than anything else.

My first observation is that Spanish is nearly as prominent in the store as English.  The lettering was not quite as big as the English, but it was only a small percentage less so. Continue reading “I Want to Buy American”

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Senator Bernie Sanders Explains How the Cow Ate the Cabbage

Weep for Our Country…

Do not try to just watch this as it is not that stimulating visually…BUT if you will just listen like you would a radio broadcast and really listen hard to what Senator Bernie Sanders is saying you might just have your eyes opened a bit.

I’ve been ranting about this stuff for years with most folks looking at me like I was crazy.  The concerns are finally going mainstream.  I can only hope if enough folks get outraged about these issues change might happen.

But then I look at the view count on this YouTube video at 100,000 or so versus the most viewed video on YouTube Justin Bieber – Baby ft. Ludacris; 402,051,105 views, and you know where peoples priorites are.  Sad, sad, sad… It strikes me that we have become a nation that has buried its collective head in the sand.